The commission of the peoples’ charter for change met at the end of May and issued a statement to those supporting the charter movement and to all who seek an alternative to austerity wages, pensions, and services. Visit the Charter site and sign up!

The commission will issue statements regularly - showing that there is an alternative to cuts – as the public’s call for fairness and against a banker’s Britain gets louder.

The Peoples Charter Commission was set up to build a mass movement against Bankers’ cuts and for a peoples’ Britain. Non-sectarian Charter groups are now springing up around the country.

The government spent an estimated £1000 billion bailing out the banks. All the main parties in the last election supported the bail-out to the banks and accepted that there had to be massive cuts to clear away the government debts of £168 billion. All the main parties say the British people have to pay for the bankers’ crisis.

15 million votes were cast against the Tories. 10 million voted in favour. No party got a majority of MPs in parliament. People did what they could in the election to prevent the onslaught to come. They wanted no part of a savage government. There was no mandate for cuts. There was no mandate for the destruction of the unions.

Now the battles against cuts will begin. All the main parties still support cuts. None of the main parties will lead the battle against cuts in health, education, welfare, homes, green investment, or pensions. None of them support BA cabin crew’s battle to save their union against extreme laws and a backward employer. The charter is a movement that can bring the fight together and show the alternative to cuts and union bashing.

Britain does not need to spend an estimated £70 billion on Trident missiles. We do not need identity cards costing between £10 and £20 billion according to the London School of Economics. If we extend state ownership of the banks and use just this year’s bank profits that will otherwise go to shareholders, it gives the British people another £15 billion. UK companies are sitting on a record pile of cash amounting to £140 billion this year (according to Morgan Stanley). A windfall tax of 50% would bring our total to £170 billion. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost £10 billion a year. If we stop the wars then that would give us £180 billion.

We could pay off all debts in one year and reverse the cuts and the tax rises already made by Labour before it lost the election. This approach means the people whose greed caused the crisis will make a serious contribution. And not one single service needs to be cut by so much as a penny.

If we go on to implement a tax policy that reverses the massive and growing gap between the rich and the rest of us then that would mean we could carry on and build our economy in a planned way. This means millions more jobs for the young and proper services with a guarantee of dignity in old age.

There is an alternative. But we will have to fight and campaign for it. Sign up to the Charter. Support and build a group in your area. First step: a hundred thousand signatures and a debate in Parliament on the Charter!